August 30, 2010

Summer Fruit Crisp

Mmmmmm...local blueberries and raspberries from our food coop, and Colorado peaches at our local grocery store, collided in our kitchen to become this delicious fruit crisp! You can make this crisp with any fruit you have available - fresh or frozen. Adjust the amount of sugar and spices in the filling to suit the fruit and your taste buds. Reduce the amount of cornstarch in the filling if you want a looser (runnier) crisp. No matter what changes you make, this is almost fool proof!

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Fruit filling:
Roughly 2 pts. total fruit - I used 1.5 C frozen blueberries, 1/2 C fresh raspberries, and 5 small Colorado peaches (peeled and sliced)
1/4 c. granulated sugar
2 tbsp. cornstarch
pinch of grated nutmeg
Toss all ingredients together in a large bowl, and place in a buttered or sprayed 9x9 inch baking dish, or one of similar capacity.


Topping:
1 c. whole wheat pastry flour
1/2 c. brown sugar
1/2 c. rolled oats
3/4 tsp. cinnamon
pinch of salt
1/2 c. walnuts, pecans, or almonds, chopped
1 stick softened butter, cut into slices (for easier incorporating)
Mix together the dry ingredients, including the nuts, and then work in the butter with a pastry blender or a fork.

Sprinkle half of the topping evenly over the fruit and cook for 10 minutes. Add the rest of the topping and cook for another 15 minutes, until top is crisp and brown and juices start to bubble up around the edges.

Serve warm with a scoop of ice cream!
These recipes will hopefully give you some ideas about how to use produce from your garden or farmer's market. There are also other recipes that are simply here because they are our favorites, or someone made a request at the last church lunch! I'd like to encourage you to alter these recipes to suit your own tastes, your family's needs, and to use what you have on hand. Therefore, some of my recipes will not have exact measurements. So...if any of the recipes leaves you scratching your head, just send me an email and I'll try to answer your question. HappyGrowing@eatingfromthegarden.com